A Close Call
by Hal v. 9.2
Summary: AU: Harry goes to the ministry to save Sirius, but ends up having Sirius save him. Now he must figure out what to do next.
1. The Rescue

Well a new year is apon us, and with that I thought I would start a new fanfic. This would be my second fanfic, and it is AU book five. The fic starts at the battle of the ministry when the Order of the Phoenix rushes in to save the kids.

Usual Disclaimer, I don't own Harry Potter nor will I make any money off it.

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"Now Potter, either give us the prophecy, or watch your little friend die the hard way!"

Harry did not have to think; there was no choice. The prophecy was hot with the heat from his clutching hand as he held it out. Malfoy jumped forward to forward to take it. Harry pulled it out of his reach at the last moment. "I want your word that you and the rest of the Death Eaters will not harm in way, any of my friends further "said Harry, having realized that once he handed over the prophecy there was nothing to stop the Death Eaters from killing his friend and himself anyway. "You are not in the position to be making conditions, or demands Potter." said Malfoy, a hint of frustration lacing his voice.

"I beg to differ" said Harry "You know what Voldermort" Malfoy winced. "will do if I destroy the prophecy, causing you to fail. The last time I heard, Voldermort isn't very tolerable of failure. "said Harry trying to sound more confident then he was, if this didn't work they were all dead.

"How dare you speak his name with your unworthy lips!" shrieked Bellatrix.

"Quite!" said Malfoy. "I accept your conditions Potter." said Malfoy putting his hand forward to shake on it. Harry readily took his hand and gave a quick shake. Light surrounded their hands sealing the promise. "I agreed to your terms, and now you should hold up your end. "said Malfoy smirking like the chasseur cat. Harry reluctantly held the prophecy out to Malfoy who quickly took it. "We have it, let's go."

With that the Death Eaters left, and the only people left were Harry and a moaning Neville. Harry walked up the stone steps to Neville. "Are you ok?" asked Harry helping Neville to his feet. "You shuben't hab gib id do dem!" said Neville in a defeated tone as he and Harry stood there. "I didn't have a choice I had to give them that prophecy, or they would kill you all and take it anyway. Now we need to move the others out of here and leave the ministry as fast as possible. When they realize that I gave them the wrong prophecy, they'll be back for vengeance. "said Harry. Neville just starred at Harry a smile starting to play on his lips, blood still flowing from his nose. "Come on. "said Harry, walking back to where the others were still lying in the room above them.

As they were about to exit the mysterious room with the veil two doors burst open and in came Sirius, Lupin, Moody, Tonks, and Kingsley. "HARRY!" yelled Sirius making a beeline right to him, flowed by the others. Sirius grabbed Harry into a tight hug, and then held him at arms length checking him for injuries. Remus looked over Neville and conjured a bandage and held it over his nose. Then instructed Neville to hold it, and turned to Harry. "Harry are there any other students here?"

Harry nodded, as the full impact of his decision to come here hit him, he had been tricked by Voldermort. Sirius was ok; he was right in front of him alive and not tortured, saving him. "Harry, are there others here?" asked Sirius. Harry snapped out of the trance that he had entered upon seeing Sirius alive and healthy. "Ya, ya there, up there, we were just going to get them." With that Harry started walking towards the door. Kingsley and Tonks immediately started checking the room for threats. While Moody walked over to Ron and blasted the brain off him. Ron was more subdued now, and was completely out of it.

Ginny was sitting against a desk while Remus cast a spell to bandage her broken ankle. Tonks was seeing to Luna, and Kingsley was casting various spells on Hermione. "Harry do you still have the prophecy?" asked Ginny. All the adults in the room seemed to pause and look at him expectantly. "Ya, I bartered our lives on Malfoy being so desperate to please Voldermort that I gave him a glowing sphere, pretending that it was my prophecy. The real one is here. "said Harry, pulling out the prophecy from his robes, everyone looked at it for a moment before Moody told him to put it back in his robes and not reveal or speak about it again outside of a secure place. Harry hastily put it back in his robes.

"There is no telling when the Death Eaters will relies Harry's little deception, we need to get the kids out of here."said Kingsley who was again on his feet and had Hermione on a floating stretcher. Tonks conjured several more stretchers and placed the still unconscious Luna and Hermione on them. Remus asked Ginny if she thought she could walk now. Ginny nodded her head and tried to stand, which she did, but started wobbling around and almost fell if Remus hadn't caught her. He summoned another stretcher and sat her on it. "Lets go." Said Moody

They made their way back to the entrance of the Department of Mysteries, through the door that had been such a long plague on Harry's dreams. Down the hall to the lifts, and boarded two of them. Ron Hermione and Neville in one with Kingsley Tonks and Remus. The other with Luna Ginny and Harry, accompanied by Sirius and Moody. They made their way to the Atrium, and were surprised to find Dumbledore battling Voldermort. The Atrium was in complete disarray, parts of statue littered the floor and unconscious Death Eaters lay on the floor near the fountain. Voldermort and Dumbledore were throwing spells at each other so fast Harry could barrly keep his eyes on the wands. Kingsley, Tonks and Moody went forward to help Dumbledore while Remus and Sirius stayed back to guard the children from a possible attack, although Harry thought it was stupid. He wanted to rush to help Dumbledore but Sirius wouldn't let go of his shoulder. He couldn't understand why Remus and Sirius hadn't run in to help Dumbledore like he would have.

Harry was distracted from the fight by the wall of fireplaces coming to life. People were running out of them and over to the atrium were the fight was taking place. Tonks came running to them with two chunks of statue in her hands. "Quick, grab on there portkeys, she thrust on in Sirius' hand and one in Remus' hand. Sirius grabbed Harry's hand and put it on the chunk of stone. Remus doing the same with Neville. "Shouldn't we take the others?" asked Harry. "They'll be fine, but Sirius can't be seen here."said Remus.

Harry felt the familiar tug behind his navel and the ministry dissolved from view.

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That it for the first chapter, I would appreciate your feed back, thoughts, and comments in the review. I plan on posting several more chapters after this one; it isn't going to be a long story. It will be irregular posting as I have college classes to handle and they take precedence.


	2. The Plan

I would just like to say that I own Harry Potter which is why I am writing AU versions of my own work and not charging for it.

(I do not own Harry Potter; all previous statements forthwith made are false)

Chapter Two

The Plan

Harry sat in his room on the second story of number four private drive. He had yet again been forced to return for the summer, albeit this time he had a reason for his suffering. After Sirius, Remus, Neville, and he had port keyed into Dumbledore's office. Remus had taken Neville to the infirmary to get his nose fixed.

Sirius had again hugged Harry tightly before saying a quick good buy with promises of letters over the summer, before he walked into the fireplace and flewed to Number Twelve Grimwald Place.

Harry had then sat there in the office quite alone kept company by the snoring portraits on the wall until Dumbledore walked out of the fireplace. He had then explained to Harry the prophecy that had been foretold of him overthrowing the dark lord. How he Harry would either die by Voldemort's hand or be the one to kill him. Harry had merely nodded his head at the time, still in shock at having survived the ministry, and in shock of the prophecy. By the end of the conversation Harry was dead tiered and had asked Dumbledore what he should do with the prophecy which he still had in his pocket. Dumbledore had destroyed it saying that now he knew the prophecy there was no need of a written record anymore.

It had been several weeks since he had come back to private drive. He had written many letters to Sirius, Ron, and Hermione. He hadn't received any in response. Harry was feeling very cut off from the wizarding world, like he had the previous summer. Not one lousy letter in response to his dozens from any of the people he considered his friends and family.

The Dursleys had left Harry alone, completely alone. They had not talked to him since he had arrived there. Which had been nice at first, but now he found that he missed human interaction. He had effectively been isolated from contact for weeks now and was growing desperate for it. So desperate that he would try and prolong conversations with the mailman just to talk to someone.

It was one and a half weeks from his birthday, and the only thing on his mind besides the betrayal of his 'friends' was Voldemort. His dreams constantly preoccupied him with Voldemort. His only free thought at points was obsessing over Voldemort. Harry had gone through every strategy book that he could find in the house. He had gone through all his parchment, which was a substantial some of parchment, writing. Writing up attack stratagems' defensive stratagems', possible means of attack and reasons for retreat; he had sworn to himself that he would not repeat his mistakes at the ministry.

The next time he would be ready for Voldemort. He had taped the parchment that he was finished with to the walls. A map of the country was pinned to the wall with pins stuck in it, identifying places that Harry thought he had been in Voldemort's dreams. There were several in it all over the map with no discernable order.

Harry having finished a rather long chapter about surprise attack and its benefits and costs had come up with an audacious plan. That had he been discussing it with people would have seen the foolishness in it. He would try to infiltrate Voldemort's mind and find his plans of movement. He would then attempt to engage him in a surprise attack at his choosing and kill him before he could kill anyone else. Every night he would clear his mind and focus on Voldemort.

It was Tuesday night, and Harry's birthday was on the upcoming Saturday. He had gone to bed as usual in boxers and an undershirt as it was so hot out. A small fan in the open window helped blow in the cool night breeze.

Harry found himself zooming over mountains and valleys to a cliff on the edge of the Irish Sea. As he came to land on it he found himself facing Voldemort, he instinctively reached for his wand only to find himself in his sleeping attire. Voldemort was looking at him intently. "So Potter, you managed to slip though my plan again, with that meddlesome old fools help no less."

"I wouldn't need his help to escape from you and your merry band of incompetent followers." Said Harry, surprised at his own boldness.

"Is that so, I here by challenge you to a dual boy. Let us see if you are as clever as you claim to be." Said Voldemort, with an air of superiority in his voice. "Let us finish what was started almost sixteen years ago."

"I accept your challenge Tom." Said Harry in a condensing manner.

"By the time I am through with you, you will wish you were more considerate with your manners. I chose this location for our dual, this Friday night." Said Voldemort.

"How will I know that you won't place traps in the area before hand, or come with your followers?" asked Harry who was glad that he was knowledgeable enough now to see such an obvious trap.

"You don't. But I do not need to cheat in a fight with a mere foolish child and I need no second to fight for me as I will not lose this dual." Said Voldemort.

"I chose no second as well, as I will be the one to walk away from this fight Tom, and I will meet you here a 11:30pm." Said Harry thinking of how soon he could get to the cliff.

"Then it is agreed our fates will be decided then." Said Voldemort.

Harry fell out of bed with his head on fire and a smirk on his face. He pulled out a red pin from his broken desk and slammed it into the map. It was the only red one on it, and he had been saving it for just such an occasion. "Your time of horror is over Tom." Said Harry to himself as he went back to sleep.

Well there you have it, chapter two. I couldn't get around to writing it any time sooner, sorry about the wait.

Jayley: _interesting, of course the death eaters left way too easily...i luv it when sirius doesn't die!_

Well that is always the trick isn't it with all AU that try to stay close to canon with only a minor change to it. However I agree with you that Sirius not dieing is a good thing in stories, as long as it doesn't turn into some strange Harry/Sirius slash.

Kk: _It sounds like a great story. I would recommend getting a beta, however, since the grammar and continuity are a bit off in places. Keep working on it and I'll keep my eye on it._

Thanks, I'm glad you like it. I would get a beta however; this isn't going to be a very long story so I'm not compelled at this point to get one.

Vellouette: _It sounds like a good start to a story, I can't wait to read what happens next.  
Hopefully my alerts will let me know when you update this story, but with the way they've been working I may just have to search for it myself._

I know what you mean, the updater just hasn't been reliable recently, and hopefully FFN will get around to fixing it. Glad you like the story.

aerohead1980: _This was a great beginning. I loved Harry giving them a fake prophecy. I am so glad Sirius is ok. Please update again soon._

Thanks, I thought that faking out desperate death eaters was a clever idea.

Kereea: _Very good, but an update would be nice. I've seen lots of beginings like this, but few ever egt farther than chapter one. This has the potential to be a great story, so I hope you continue it!_

I plan on taking it to this story to a conclusion, I just can't give a definite update schedule with all the classes I have. They take precedence to FF as much as I would prefer it the other way. Glad you like it.


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